Further Adventures

“Full rigging!” cried Abigail as the Raging Gale made her way to the open sea.

Hope smiled as she heard the resounding crack of the sails going taut with a full head of wind filling them.

“All said, not bad, eh?” Abigail noted as the wide open seas spread before the bow. “We run with the wind, the better for it.”

“Sharp to it!” Osei called as the topsail filled, a bright white threatening to outshine the dawn. Goddard balanced himself atop the yard and leaned aside the wind like a living pendant, scanning the horizon.

“Indeed,” said Hope. “After our encounter with that dreadful De Colera, I am glad to be out on the open seas.”

“Aye, indeed. And with him no longer coming after us, we are free to truly become a force upon the waves.”

“For good more than ill, I hope,” said Surgeon Samuels after he cleared his throat.

“I’d think after your imprisonment, that you might be more, well… empathetic, shall we say?”

“Let me tell you this: If anything, being at the mercy of De Colera has given me more fight and vinegar. But if it be calming your quiet nature any, let me tell you…”

As Abigail took a breath, Samuel came up to Hope’s right and Charity to her left.

“I’ll say this: If anything, I will put more of me effort to going after the likes of De Colera. There be grand opportunities for everyone who’s come here to the New World, but green fields that bring lambs to graze draw wolves too. Wolves like De Colera, Isabel de Cordova, the governor of Nueva España; such monsters as these need be fought off, and fiercely.”

Hope took Samuel’s and Charity’s hand in hers, and exchanged smiles with both of them as she drew them closer.

“And it is for the sake of this brave New World, for the good folk who come here, that I will prey especially hard upon them. I will sail forth and find such wicked and horrible people, and when I find them, when we have them in our sights, wh-”

“What the hell?” asked Jenny as she came out of the bathroom, drawing in closer the blanket she wore.

Shaun looked up and said, “Hey, you were in there a while. Just waiting for you.”

“Where the hell’s the remote?”

“I don’t see it; did you accidentally bring it in with you in the blankets?”

Jenny flapped the blanket. “I’m not seeing…” she said before she realized Shaun greedily stared at the free show.

She gave a slight smile, let the blanket drop, then gave a twirl as she spun across the room, stopping as she pulled out her pistol from her pile of clothes.

“You’re not going to shoot me because I got you naked, are you?” Shaun asked.

“Of course not sweetie,” she said with a smile as she leveled her gun at the TV. “Now give me the damn remote.”

“Hey, you wouldn’t really do that, would you?”

“Five,” she said as she released the safety.

“Hey, this set was hard to get in the first place. I had to go all the way out to Springville to pick over this guy’s haul.”

“Four.”

“It was the only set without bullet damage from when he hijacked the truck it was on, remember?”

“Three.”

“And do you know how much I had to bribe the guy for the hook-up, how many cases of whiskey I needed to get the access chips installed with all those channels?”

“Start cutting back on the drinking to save up for the next one, Shaun. Two.”

“Aw cr-” he muttered as he scooped up the remote and tossed it to Jenny.

“And it is for them that the Raging Gale will be sailing the seas, bringing a terrible vengeance upo-” Abigail managed to say before Jenny shut the TV.

“God, man,” Jenny said as she crawled back into bed, “I just really hate what they did to the book in that movie…”